


of course, sweet things are dangerous

by notspring



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, F/F, Failed Hook-Ups, Housing Insecurity, Personal Growth, just like. a lot of bad decision-making in general
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:40:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27891667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notspring/pseuds/notspring
Summary: Mina had warned Sana, over and over again, that one day Sana would run into a problem she couldn’t flirt her way out of. Sana could have listened to her, but she hadn’t wanted to. Sana doesn’t do anything unless she wants to, and worrying is boring and stupid.
Relationships: Kim Dahyun/Minatozaki Sana
Comments: 17
Kudos: 102





	of course, sweet things are dangerous

**Author's Note:**

> the failed hook-up mentioned in the tags is with an oc, not the main pairing. if you have any other questions or suggestions for tagging, let me know and i'll fix it!

  


(monday)

  
  
  
  
The worst week of Sana’s life starts like this —  
  
  
  
“You found a new place, right?” Mina asks, eyes wide with concern. 

“Duh,” Sana says, waving a dismissive hand.

She has _not_ found a new place, actually, but Sana’s sure it’s not a big deal. Something will turn up. It always does. 

Mina looks at her for a moment, a troubled expression on her face — typical Mina. 

Sweet, shy Mina, who’d wanted to be a ballerina before she’d broken her ankle a year out of high school, and ended up coming over from Japan to study business on a student visa instead. Mina’s really too sensible to be hanging around someone like Sana, but they’d met through a forum for expats and ended up living together anyway.

“You’re sure?” Mina asks, not seeming convinced at all. 

Sana rolls her eyes. Truthfully, she’s a little annoyed with Mina for putting her in this position in the first place. Mina’s the one with a real visa and ID number, so the apartment is leased in her name. But she’s moving out to live with her boyfriend on Saturday — scandalous — so Sana’s going to be homeless unless she figures something else out.

Usually she’s better at this, honestly, but either it’s a bad time of year or everyone’s tired of her, because Sana’s been asking around — when she remembers — for almost a month now, and no one’s made any serious offers. 

It’s, fine though. It’ll work out. 

It always works out.  
  
  
  


(tuesday)

  
  
  
  
“You really can’t find somewhere to stay?” Dahyun asks, taking an enormous bite of her hot dog. She chews with wide eyes, waiting for Sana’s response. 

Sana met Dahyun through Momo: Momo knew her from the dance studio she was working at, and had brought her up at dinner. 

_She’s kind of weird, I don’t know,_ Momo described Dahyun rather vaguely, waving her hand like she didn’t know exactly what words to use. When Sana had asked if Dahyun was someone she might know, Momo frowned and shook her head. When Mina asked if Dahyun was a good dancer, Momo just shrugged, helplessly. _She’s fun at parties?_ she’d said, finally, when Mina had pressed for more details. 

She’d sounded exactly like Sana’s type of girl, honestly. 

Sana is also elusive, eclectic, and fun at parties, and she’s not insecure enough to worry about any possible competition. Sana’s got charm to spare. She doesn’t need to be the only star at the party, just the one who shines the brightest, and she already knows she always is. 

But Dahyun turned out to be different than Sana expected, when they finally met. She had charm, certainly, but not the way Sana was thinking. She didn’t seem to care one way or another whether anyone was looking her way.

She didn’t have to care, Sana realized, because Dahyun was the one who was doing the looking. It seemed like every time Sana glanced Dahyun’s way, that first night, Dahyun was looking right back. Sometimes she even smiled, like they were in on a little joke together. 

It might have bothered Sana, not knowing the punchline, if she was the type of person who let herself be bothered by things like that. But jealousy is just as boring as worry, and Sana isn’t about to let herself get held down by either one. 

So the next time she caught Dahyun looking her way, she winked. 

Dahyun didn’t seem surprised at all, which was both delightful and infuriating. She just laughed and winked back, cheerful, before she turned back to her conversation with Chaeyoung. Whatever they were talking about looked like it was hilarious — Chaeyoung was laughing so hard she was almost purple. 

Sana had felt strange, watching it, but she couldn’t quite identify why. 

She still feels strange, sometimes, when she looks at Dahyun, but it isn’t something she lets herself think about too much. 

“I’d offer to help, but … ” Dahyun trails off with a grimace. Sana laughs, a little incredulous. Dahyun still lives with her parents — that’s a hard pass. 

“Thanks, but no thanks,” Sana says.

“I figured as much,” Dahyun responds, sounding awfully chipper about it. 

Sana rolls her eyes, taking a sip of her soda, but she likes Dahyun too much to stay annoyed for long.  
  
  
  


(wednesday)

  
  
  
  
“What about that guy you were seeing? That old dude who still wants you to call him oppa?”

“Hyunmin? Yeah,” Sana says, poking at her drink with the straw. “He offered. But then, like. You know.”

“Uh, no,” Momo says. “I don’t.”

“If I move in with him then it’s like, a _thing_ ,” Sana explains. “We’re just having fun, I don't want to tie myself down like that.”

That isn’t it, really, but Sana doesn’t know how else to explain it. She’s getting tired of guys like Hyunmin, but she’s too afraid to say that out loud. Too afraid that what she wants doesn’t matter, that she still needs them whether she’s tired or not. 

“Okay,” Momo says slowly. “But if you don’t have any other options….”

“I have other options,” Sana says firmly.

She doesn’t, really, and desperate times call for desperate measures, so Sana calls Chaeyoung up to meet for coffee that evening and explains her problem, trying to look as cute and helpless as she can. Chaeyoung listens to Sana’s entire speech with a frown on her face, considering, before she makes her decision.

“I guess you could stay with us….” Chaeyoung trails off with a grimace, clearly not thrilled at the idea. 

Sana widens her eyes as big as they’ll go, blinking a little for effect. 

“Thank you _so_ much,” she says, contemplating reaching for Chaeyoung’s hand and then thinking better of it. She doesn’t want to push her luck. Chaeyoung’s always a little hesitant around Sana, ever since the incident with Tzuyu last year, which — how was Sana supposed to know they were together? It was an innocent mistake. 

“It’s just temporary, right?” Chaeyoung says, biting her lip. “Our place isn’t that big, so….”

“Totally,” Sana reassures her. “Just for like, a week, I swear.”  
  
  
  


(thursday)

  
  
  
  
“Just don’t stay up too late, okay?” Chaeyoung says as Sana dumps her bags in the living room. “And don’t invite anyone weird over, you’ll scare Tzuyu.”

“Absolutely,” Sana agrees, flopping on the couch with a sigh. She’s exhausted — getting everything out of the taxi was a nightmare. 

Chaeyoung stares at her for a moment, a skeptical expression on her face.

“Okay,” she says. “Well, I’m on nights this week, so. I’m gonna leave soon.”

“Oh!” Sana says brightly. “You go on! I’ll be fine!”

Chaeyoung hesitates for a long moment before nodding slowly and retreating to her bedroom.

Tzuyu’s out, too, and Sana hates to be alone, so she calls Dahyun to meet up. Dahyun is agreeable, like she always is. 

“Be careful,” Dahyun says when Sana tells her about Chaeyoung. Sana wrinkles her nose, confused.

“Careful about what?” she asks. “I’m just going to crash on her couch, that’s all.”

“Yeah, but Chaeyoung’s sensitive,” Dahyun says. 

Sana stares at her, trying to figure out what that’s supposed to mean, before she shakes her head and smiles.

“Of course!” she says, blinking her eyes, leaning forward to rest her chin in her palms. The picture of innocence. Dahyun huffs out a laugh, looking away. Her cheeks are a little pink — it’s cute. 

Weirdly, looking at Dahyun’s cheeks make Sana’s own face start to flush, which doesn’t make any sense.

“I’ll be so good for Chaeyoung, I swear,” she says, getting back on track as she sits back up. 

“I trust you,” Dahyun says with a little smile. 

The flush in Sana’s cheeks won’t seem to fade.  
  
  
  


(friday)

  
  
  
  
Sana tries to be good, she really does. But it’s Friday, and she solved her apartment problem, and if she doesn’t go out she’ll be alone — Sana’s never been any good at sitting with her own thoughts. 

She usually hates going out by herself, but her luck is good tonight — someone comes up with her as she’s ordering her second drink.

He’s fun, Sana thinks. Young, handsome, a little nervous. Obviously struggling to keep his eyes from tracking down Sana’s body — she’s got him exactly where she wants him.

Sana lets him chat her up a little, laughing in all the right places, a delicate hand on his forearm to keep him reeled in, before — 

“Wanna go to yours?” she asks coyly, leaning in like they’re sharing a secret. She looks up at him through her eyelashes, judging his reaction.

He nods, then blinks.

“Ah,” he says, letting out an embarrassed laugh. “I’m still in school, so….”

“Oh,” Sana says, blinking a little, barely pausing before she pastes a brilliant grin onto her face. “That’s fine! You can come to mine instead.”

Chaeyoung and Tzuyu went out tonight, too. They won’t mind, just this once. 

Probably. 

Sana doesn’t think. 

The apartment is quiet when Sana lets them in, and she giggles as she fumbles with her shoes, pressing the guy towards the couch and dropping them both on top of it. 

“We have to be quick,” she says, breathing out a laugh, fumbling with his zipper as his hands start to inch up the hem of her skirt, and then — 

“Oh my GOD,” someone yells. 

Sana feels the guy — Donghoon? Younghoon? — stiffen underneath her, and she pulls back to see Chaeyoung and Tzuyu standing in the apartment entrance. 

Chaeyoung’s eyes are wide and shocked. Tzuyu’s hidden hers behind her hand. 

“Um,” Sana says, reaching down to adjust where her dress has ridden up. She turns to look at maybe-Donghoon — he looks shellshocked, an expression of pure horror on his face. 

“You should probably leave,” she says apologetically. It takes him a moment, but he nods, urging her up off his lap and moving towards the door. Sana gives him a little wave on his way out. 

“Sorry about that,” Sana giggles, turning to look at Chaeyoung. It takes her a moment to realize Chaeyoung isn’t laughing. “Oh. Sorry,” she tries again, pasting a serious expression on her face this time.

“I told you not to invite anyone weird over,” Chaeyoung says slowly, her voice very low.

“That wasn’t someone weird,” Sana protests. “That was my friend, um. Younghoon.”

“That was a _man_ on my _couch_ ,” Chaeyoung hisses. “His _pants were unzipped_. I can’t believe you made me see that. I can’t believe you made _Tzuyu_ see that.”

Tzuyu makes a little noise of agreement where she’s standing next to Chaeyoung. Her eyes are very wide, now that Sana can see them.

“It won’t happen again, I promise,” Sana says, straightening up. “I totally promise.”

Chaeyoung’s expression doesn’t change. 

“You know what?” she says after a moment, voice shaking a little. “Get out. I don’t have to deal with this. I don’t _want_ to deal with this.”

“What?” Sana stares at her, shocked. She tries to look at Tzuyu, but Tzuyu has her eyes firmly locked on the ground. She’s sidled in closer to Chaeyoung, though, so her position on the matter is still pretty clear. 

“Get out,” Chaeyoung says again, jaw set, and it’s clear that she means it. 

Sana opens her mouth to protest, then snaps it shut. Her ears ring, slightly, as she slowly picks her purse up off the floor and makes her way to the apartment entrance. She stuffs her feet back into her heels, not sure where any of her other shoes ended up.

“Um,” she says by the door. Tzuyu still won’t meet her eyes. “I’ll come back for my bags?”

“Sure,” Chaeyoung says, sounding exhausted, and Sana winces. 

Mina had warned Sana, over and over again, that one day Sana would run into a problem she couldn’t flirt her way out of. Sana could have listened to her, but she hadn’t wanted to. Sana doesn’t do anything unless she wants to, and worrying is boring and stupid. 

Pieces always seem to fall into place at the last moment. Sana widens her eyes at the right time, leans over a little bit, smiles shyly, and suddenly it’s like magic — she’s got an offer to help her with rent, or an invitation for dinner, or someone’s friend who needs a model for her new accessories store. 

Mina calls her shameless, but what the hell does Mina know? Her parents still pay her tuition. Mina wants to find a job in Korea when she graduates, but if she doesn’t, she’ll either go back home or get married here. She has plenty of options. 

Sana hasn’t spoken to her parents in almost two years, and she didn’t even finish high school. If she goes back to Japan, she’ll have nothing. 

She barely makes it twenty minutes from Chaeyoung’s apartment before she’s calling Momo, her fingers trembling against the screen as she dials. 

“Can you please tell Chaeyoung she’s overreacting,” Sana hisses into the phone as soon as the call connects, coming to a stop in front of a convenience store. 

Momo doesn’t say anything.

“Momo?” Sana asks, all the fight draining out of her. A slow sense of dread starts to creep in in its place. “Did she talk to you already?”

“Look, Sana,” Momo says, voice blunt. “I love you, you know I do. But that was really inconsiderate.”

“I didn’t mean to be,” Sana tries to protest, but the words come out hollow and weak, the wind taken out of her sails now that Momo has taken Chaeyoung’s side. There’s a funny ringing sound in her ears. 

“I get it, okay?” Momo says after a moment of quiet. “I know you. I understand why you act like you do. But that doesn’t mean I think it’s right, either.”

“What does that mean?” Sana blurts out, staring intently at the sidewalk in front of her, grip too tight around the edges of her phone. “What do you understand?”

She doesn’t know how Momo can say something like that so easily. Sana feels like there’s something empty inside of her — an aching, unknowable black hole that she tries not to think too hard about. It’s easier to distract herself, to go out and find someone new to occupy her time. Someone who won’t notice what’s missing. 

How can Momo say she understands Sana, when Sana doesn’t even understand herself?

“I’m not going to explain you to you, Sana,” Momo says, sounding tired. “I wouldn’t presume.”

“I want you to,” Sana says, pleading. It’s humiliating, even more so when Momo refuses to answer. 

“I think you need to figure it out for yourself,” she says. “I’m going to go, okay? Good luck.”

Something ugly wells up in Sana’s chest, a seething unfamiliar jealousy taking her over before she can stop it. 

“Well, fuck you too, then,” she snaps, meaner than she can ever remember being, and then she hangs up the phone.

Sana wants to scream. How can Momo just leave her like this? Like it’s nothing. 

Like Sana isn’t totally alone.

Hyunmin would come to pick her up in a heartbeat if Sana called, but Sana doesn’t want that. If Hyunmin picks her up she’ll have to listen to all his problems, eyes wide and sympathetic. She’ll have to be everything he wants, and Sana’s too tired for that right now. 

She wants someone to be what _she_ wants, but she’s pretty sure it’s too late for that. 

Mina might still come, but she’ll be so disappointed — Sana can’t manage that, either. 

She sits there like that, hunched down outside a convenience store, trying to think of someone who won’t judge her for this. Someone who won’t ask any stupid questions. 

There’s only one answer, of course, but opening Dahyun’s contact makes her stomach squirm, something Sana distantly recognizes as embarrassment making it hard to force herself to type. She did exactly what Dahyun told her not to do, after all, and now she’s going to have to beg Dahyun to fix it. 

She starts at least three different messages and deletes every single one, staring blankly at the screen. 

_can you come_ , Sana sends, finally, attaching her location. 

She locks her phone, then, and stuffs it into her purse without bothering to wait for a reply. Dahyun will come, or she won’t. 

Sana will be here either way.

She has no idea how long she stays there, crouched on the sidewalk in her stupid shiny dress, until she feels a prickle down the back of her neck, the awareness that she’s being watched. She looks up slowly to see —

Oh. 

Dahyun came. 

Sana watches as Dahyun smiles, a little crooked in one corner, and comes to squat in front of her, holding her umbrella up for both of them. Sana hadn’t even noticed it had started to rain.

“Hi,” Sana says miserably. 

“Hi,” Dahyun says, searching for something in Sana’s expression. 

Sana doesn’t know what there is to find. Doesn’t know why Dahyun is even trying — nice, normal Dahyun, with her perfect skin and her girl-next-door charm. She shouldn’t want to have anything to do with someone like Sana. 

“Let’s go,” Dahyun says after a moment, holding her hand out for Sana to take it. 

Sana stares. 

“Go where?” she asks, lost.

“Home,” Dahyun says, like it’s obvious.

 _What home_ , Sana thinks with a miserable jolt, her eyes suddenly stinging with the humiliating threat of tears. 

“Come on,” Dahyun says, not pulling her hand back even though Sana’s made no moves to take it. “You trust me, right?”

“Okay,” Sana murmurs, finally, and lets Dahyun pull her to her feet. Dahyun brushes her dress off for her, straightening the hem with a little cluck of her tongue. It’s a cute gesture, Sana thinks, a little hysterically. Like something someone’s grandmother would do for them.

Sana’s eyes start to sting again.

“You can stay for a little bit, if you need to,” Dahyun says, pretending not to notice, guiding Sana to start walking down the sidewalk. “Tomorrow’s Saturday, my mom’s ordering chicken.”

Sana can’t help but laugh at the idea of someone’s parents seeing her like this — dress too tight, heels too high. Mascara totally ruined. But Dahyun seems totally serious, a placid smile on her face as she waits for Sana’s response.

“Okay,” Sana says again, giving in. She’s quiet as she follows Dahyun home.  
  
  
  


(saturday)

  
  
  
  
The worst week of Sana’s life ends like this —  
  
  
  
Dahyun’s parents order extra chicken when it’s time for dinner, making space for Sana at the table like she belongs there, like there’s nothing wrong with her showing up at their apartment in the middle of the night. 

Dahyun’s pyjamas don’t fit her right when she changes for bed — there’s no way they fit Dahyun right, either. They’re enormous. Dahyun laughs when she sees her, eyes scrunching up in delight, reaching for her phone to take a picture before Sana can stop her. 

Dahyun’s bed is warm when they climb in, just big enough for the two of them to squeeze in under too many blankets. Both of their cheeks flush a little from the heat. 

Dahyun’s breath smells like mint when she kisses Sana’s cheek, and she smiles when she pulls back.

“We’ll call Chaeyoung tomorrow,” she says quietly, squeezing Sana’s hand. “It’ll all be okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> i started this when feel special came out in uh... october 2019... and AGAINST ALL ODDS i have finished! this is the first time i've ever tried to write twice so i hope it's ok ♡

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic of] of course, sweet things are dangerous](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28532127) by [knight_tracer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/knight_tracer/pseuds/knight_tracer)




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